PJL: March 2014 (Part 1)

Muhammed Muheisen: Female Brick-makers in debt in Pakistan (AP Big Story) Tens of thousands of poor Pakistanis work hard in brick kilns, agriculture fields and other hard labor across Pakistan in what is called “bonded labor” to pay off family loans often passed down through generations.

Andrea Bruce: Where Lush Beauty Conceals Dread (NYT Lens) The community spirit that Andrea Bruce knew from her grandfather’s farm was nowhere to be found in India, where the widows of farmers who commit suicide confront creditors and ostracism.

Andrea Bruce—NOOR Images for MSF

Andrea Bruce and Mikhail Galustov: Afghanistan – Long and Dangerous Road (Médecins Sans Frontières) After over a decade of international aid and investment, Afghans still struggle to access critical medical care due to insecurity, distance, cost, or the dysfunction of many health facilities.

Mehran Hamrahi: Iranian People (Lens Culture) Currently, Iran has one of the youngest populations of any country in the world. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran’s population has grown to 76 million people — and 70% are under 35. But due to the policies of the current regime, the youth are deprived of basic social freedoms.

Davide Monteleone: Made in Maidan (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) Photographer Monteleone set up a makeshift portrait studio beside one of the barricades erected by protesters, posing his subjects in front of a red carpet emblazoned with the guelder rose, one of Ukraine’s national symbols. | Also on the VII website here

Donald Weber: Cheers to the Revolution: Kiev’s Molotov Cocktails (Vice) Kiev’s EuroMaidan protesters used fire to their advantage. With fire, the protesters were able to defend their barricades, extend their lines, and fortify their positions. They were mobilized throughout the city to collect as many bottles as possible, and thousands of Molotov cocktails were used to set fire to tanks, other armored vehicles, and buses. These little bombs were the only real weapon protesters had against the government’s well-armed forces. | Also on the VII website here

Oksana Yushko: ‘Unwanted people:’ A portrait of Crimea (MSNBC) Yushko explored the lasting effects of a lifetime under Soviet rule by photographing residents of Balaklava, a small seaside town on the Crimean Peninsula that enjoyed prosperity as host to a Soviet naval base.

Andrew Querner: The Bread With Honey (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) Project on a mining community in northern Kosovo

Fabio Bucciarelli: On the Ground in South Sudan: A new nation, in crisis (Al Jazeera America) 800,000 refugees. Massive food shortages. Ongoing violence. As the world’s newest country falls further into crisis, photographer Fabio Bucciarelli — on assignment for Al Jazeera America — documents the harsh realities

Johan Bävman: Uganda, Maternal mortality (Agence Vu) Every day, 800 women die because they are pregnant. More than half of the deaths occur in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, where the chance of surviving childbirth is the lowest in the world.

Glenna Gordon: Liberia’s new army comes of age (Al Jazeera America) The U.S. spent millions to rebuild Liberia’s army after civil war; now the force must stand on its own

Meridith Kohut: Protests Broaden in Venezuela (NYT) Antigovernment protesters in San Cristóbal and other cities in Venezuela have taken to the streets, an outpouring attributed to a litany of problems that have long bedeviled the country — high inflation, high crime, chronic shortages of basic goods, like milk and toilet paper, and more recently, a government crackdown on public dissent.

Graham McIndoe: My Addiction, Through My Eyes (New York Magazine) Most documentary projects about addiction expose someone else’s self-destructive behavior, but Graham MacIndoe took a very different approach: He photographed himself during the years he was addicted to drugs

Pete Marovich: The Politics of a Democracy (burn magazine) When it comes to politics in the United States, Washington, D.C. is ground zero.

The Art of Violence in the 21st Century (No Caption Needed) Robert Hariman’s thoughts on Christopher Vanegas’ World Press Photo award winning photograph showing a Mexico crime scene where two bodies hang from a bridge.

World Press 2014: Cougars and Bonobos (PROOF) National Geographic Senior Editor Kathy Moran on Steve Winter’s 1st place nature story on cougars and Christian Ziegler’s 3rd place nature story on bonobos.

Pictures of the Year: Finding Stories Everywhere (NYT Lens) Barbara Davidson, who was named newspaper photographer of the year by the Pictures of the Year International contest, says there are good stories everywhere, and that “foreign is relative to where you are.”

Erika Larsen: In Search of a Horse (PROOF) From 2011 to 2013 Erika Larsen travelled to many locations in the western U.S. to learn about the significance of the horse in Native American culture. Larsen’s photographs documenting this bond are featured in the March 2014 issue of National Geographic.

Larry Towell on photographing the revolution in Kiev (CBC) “I’m looking for images that tell a story obviously and things that suggest sometimes what’s going on outside of the frame, not necessarily what is in the frame, as poetry does with language.” | Text, photos and audio

Afghan Photography (BBC) 5 minute radio piece on a new documentary film about the resurgence of photojournalism in Afghanistan

The True Henri Cartier-Bresson (The Daily Beast) Over the years, the famed photographer’s work has been the subject of many shows. But a new retrospective in Paris takes a more complete look at the full range of his career.

Industry concerned about Getty Images’ free-for-all approach (BJP) Representatives organisations around the world, including the American Society of Media Photographers and the National Press Photographers Association in the US, have condemned Getty Images’ decision to offer 35 million images at no cost for all non-commercial uses